


Heavy lies the head (that never wore a crown)

by orphan_account



Category: 15th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 18:18:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7543030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daughter, wife, mother, madwoman, and political pawn; Juana of Castile was all of these and more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heavy lies the head (that never wore a crown)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [littlehuntress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlehuntress/gifts).



 

Queen Isabella took pride in Juana’s beauty and intelligence, but she was far from the most important of her children. Her primary devotion lay with her two oldest; Isabella, her firstborn and namesake, and Juan, her “angel” and heir. Still, she saw to it that all of her children received the finest education Castile and Aragon could offer. It never occurred to the queen that her third child might one day become her successor. Juana, like the rest of her daughters, was used to secure a foreign alliance and given in marriage to Phillip, grandson of Holy Emperor Maximilian. Later, Isabella would hear disturbing rumors from Burgundy and wish she had taught her middle child more about the duties of being a wife.

….

Phillip was in no great hurry to make the acquaintance of his bride when he heard of her arrival. It was a month before they formally met. One look at the beautiful auburn-haired, blue-eyed Juana, however, was enough for him to order that the marriage take place then and there, after which they passionately made love. Neither of them spoke the other’s language, but the chemistry between the two was undeniable. In time she bore him two sons and four daughters.

To Phillip’s great annoyance, Juana did not know her proper place as a wife. She rebelled against him, she defied him, and she lashed out in anger at one of his mistresses, cutting off her hair. Even his attempts to tame her by stripping her of her allowance, causing many of her unpaid Spanish attendants to leave her, could not completely quench Juana’s fire.

It was not until the deaths of Juana’s older siblings and nephew, leaving his wife heir to Castile, that Phillip saw the prize he had won.

…

Ferdinand had never cared for his rival Phillip of Burgundy. He held little affection for his oldest surviving legitimate child. The king of Aragon’s true love was power, not family. He had remarried after Isabella’s death, hoping for a son and true successor, but such was not to be.

Ferdinand made sure that the rumors of Juana’s erratic behavior and mental imbalance were spread far and wide. When Phillip died at the age of twenty-eight, Juana played right into his hands. Eight months pregnant, the queen insisted on accompanying the entourage to her husband’s final resting place in Granada, giving rise to the legend of a grief-stricken woman who could not bear to be parted from her husband’s corpse. By the time Juana had stopped in Torquemada and given birth to her last child, she had already lost. Her father had convinced the royal council of Castile that Juana was incapable of ruling and seized the reins of power. His unfortunate daughter was locked away in Tordesillas, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

….

Despite having never set foot in Spain until Ferdinand’s death, Charles was much like his maternal grandfather in personality and behavior. He had not seen Juana since he was a child of six. If he saw signs of sanity in his supposedly deranged mother when he went to visit at Tordesillas, he kept such information to himself. He appointed new, stricter “guardians” for his mother and ruled in her name, as his grandfather had before him.

….

Catalina knew the truth. Born in Spain after the death of her father, she was raised by her mother in Tordesillas. She witnessed firsthand her mother’s fits - her hunger strikes and occasional refusal to take Mass. She also saw her mother’s bravery and unwavering courage when facing the rebels known as the Junta. Catalina wrote to her brother Charles of her mother’s cruel treatment at the hands of their custodians, the Marquis and Marchionesses of Denia, but received little in the way of comfort or restitution.

Stolen away in the dead of night to marry her cousin, King John III of Portugal, Catalina longed for the comfort of her mother’s embrace. Over the years she wrote letters to Juana, but intercepted by the Denias, they never reached the queen’s hands.

….

The “mad” queen of Castile died at the age of 75. Her numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren had spread throughout Europe, but Juana herself died alone and desolate. She was buried in Granada next to her husband, posthumously known as, “Phillip the Handsome.” It would be centuries before historians came to question the woman behind the legend and search for the truth.

 


End file.
